At the ACT AFBJJ Championships, Brodie Greco of Absolute MMA St Kilda took away a double championship in both the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Gi and No-Gi, showing off his double butterfly leglock entries. Four quickly secured submissions saw Brodie get four wins to achieve this result, and rise to #1 in Australia in the blue belt rankings! It has been great having Brodie train with us in the gym and we are happy to see his hard work paying off. Congratulations on your result, and we wish you the best of luck in your upcoming competition in a month’s time!
Competitors Susy Ferri and Doug Kaegi also went to the ACT to throw down on the mats, with Susy moving up to the middle weight division. Susy demonstrated excellent control in her first blue belt competition, hitting a slick back take and finishing with a cross choke in her first fight. In the final she exchanged sweeps with her opponent before getting knee reaped and winning by DQ. In the open weight she dominated both fights, not giving up a point and winning the open final by 6-0. Well done by Susy!
Brown Belt Doug Kaegi dominated his first Gi opponent, winning by armbar. In the semi-final, he escaped a tight triangle-armbar combination to win by an advantage. In the final he made a critical mistake with 30 seconds left and lost by points, however, in the No-Gi he won the open final by electric chair in 17 seconds! Amazing work Doug! This was a great day on the mats in the ACT with strong competitors across all the divisions. Between the three of our competitors, we came home with 8 gold and 2 silver medals!
Back home in Melbourne, we were lucky enough to have Jiu Jitsu Team League host their third team tournament with us at Absolute MMA St Kilda on Sunday. The first women’s quintet event in Australia was sure to be packed with excitement from the start, with this tournament putting four teams of five (blue and purple belt) women against each other, each representing a separate charity organisation.
With multiple gyms in attendance, we were happy to have quite a few competitors representing Absolute MMA, assistant Kids BJJ Coach Brionii Cuskelly, Lauren Thompson, Sarah Chapman, Meesh Hall, Juliette Brillet, Megumi Lim and Brooke Butler. Great work on the mats ladies, it was wonderful to see everyone rolling for their respective charities and putting in the hard yards for a good cause.
“The Aggressive Cuddlers” took came home with the win after defeating The Early Risers in Round 1 and Best Restraint, Escape, Submission Team in Round 2. The Aggressive Cuddlers represented Share the Dignity. Share the Dignity gives sanitary products to homeless women and fights for domestic violence victims. Nearly 100 people attended the Jiu Jitsu Team League event, raising $1000 in donations going directly to Share the Dignity.
If you missed the matches on Sunday there’s no need to worry. The event was streamed live and can be rewatched for free over at Jiu Jitsu Team League’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/jiujitsuteamleague/
Massive thank you to Jiu Jitsu Team League for organising, Livia Giles, Megan Milne, Hannah Gorman, Zach Ayman, Jamie Strauss, Misha Tchernych, Ashley Wright, all of the competitors and of course the fantastic crowd that showed up to watch on the day.
Keep an eye over on the Jiu Jitsu Team League Facebook and Instagram pages to be notified about the next event they will be running.
We would also like to congratulate Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitor Hugh Boyd, who took out his No-Gi division with two straight ankle locks at the Byron Bay Winter Open! In the Gi blue/purple open weight, Hugh won his first fight against a purple belt and lost his second to another purple belt. Hugh takes away Gold and a Bronze for his efforts on the mats, a well-deserved two medals! Great work Hugh!
Overseas in sunny Phuket, Absolute MMA Thailand fighter Tymo won his bout via KO in the second round at Bangla Stadium! In the first round of the fight, Tymo threw multiple, devastating knees to drop his opponent, and then in the second finished him off with a heavy punch. Congratulations on your win and on a great performance Tymo!
Published with thanks to Doug Kaegi.
Photography: Jiu-Jitsu Team League, Livia Giles, Doug Kaegi, Cooper Burnham.